commentary

Leave Me Alone, People of Fourth Street Mall

No, guy in a XXL T-shirt with a corporate logo, I will not have a conversation with you. I have some place to be. Why don’t you?

Downtown’s Fourth Street Mall could be a nice place. It’s landscaped. It’s a pedestrian thoroughfare between bars, restaurants, hotels and even museums. Every time I stroll down it though, rather than enjoying the trees or the faint scent of Italian spices, I’m panhandled and/or sexually harassed by idle loiterers around the mall. What are the scores of them doing there at 2 p.m. on a Thursday? Why won’t they leave me alone when I’m trying to get a sandwich?